Russian social media users are offering free lodging in exchange for a bowl of soup to Ukrainian women wanting to leave the country, it seems.

The new service, called Ukrainian To Every House, appears to connect Russian "guys" offering accommodation, and Ukrainian "girls" looking for a place to stay. It was launched on the popular VKontakte network by MDK, its largest user group with 4.6 million subscribers.

The project claims more than a dozen women have been matched through the website, and that it helps people "escape Banderite Ukraine". Western Ukrainians were sometimes called Banderites - after the wartime partisan leader Stepan Bandera - in Soviet-era propaganda. At one point, Bandera was allied with the Nazis.

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